


Happenstance

by ofskullsandpoetry



Series: Les Miserables College AU by Arden [1]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, Other, Siblings, especially the valjeans, everyone dates everyone tbh, grantaire is a thenardier, just give them a hug please, no one dies whoop, this is pretty gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-05-19 03:33:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14865810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofskullsandpoetry/pseuds/ofskullsandpoetry
Summary: Why do things like this happen? Especially to people like us. People like them. College was supposed to be "the best years of your life". So why does all this bullshit happen? Who knows. Maybe it will all work out in the end.





	1. The Valjeans

**Author's Note:**

> mentions cheating, drinking, sex (nothing graphic)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mentions cheating, drinking, sex (nothing graphic)

Maybe all three Valjean siblings attending the same college was destiny. Or perhaps it was just a huge mistake. Who could tell? Or maybe it wasn't destiny, coincidence, fate or whatever bull buttocks you want to believe in. Perhaps it was just because their father was the renowned Poli Sci professor. And instead of a paycheck, his kids got tuition.

Or maybe it was all fate and chance and destiny and whatever. No one can tell.

Jean Valjean Jr., who absolutely hated their name and instead went by Jehan Prouvaire, a mix of a fictional poet and their mother’s maiden name, believed in fate. They believed in soulmates and meant-to-be and love at first sight. They also believed in karma, that son of a bitch. In other words, they found that maybe they chose the midnight plane to Seattle wasn’t a mistake. I mean looking back on the experience they would claim and swear and protest that it wasn’t accidental and that what they got out of it was worth the torture of taking a red eye. But at the time it was just painful.

Their brother, Enjolras Valjean, quoted by Jehan to be the “king of all devils, but the queen of all angels.” Jehan was a poet, don’t attack them. Enjolras also had a hellish trip back home. He spent the summer what he’d like to claim was “hitchhiking” but was calling Courfeyrac’s family that lived in Paris and borrowing their car, around Europe with his boyfriend, and their mutual best friend. But the hell wasn’t Courf’s third-wheeling or the fact that it was an eight and a half hour plane ride or the fact that Enjolras was only dating Combeferre to stop all of the rumors he was dating Grantaire, who was a. Straight and b. Hated him. No, it was an entirely different thing. It was the fact that when he woke up, ready to get on the plane to Seattle, he had walked in and caught Courfeyrac and Combeferre making out. He wasn’t pissed per se, just that eight and a half hours was an insanely long time to spend time with them.

Cosette Valjean was single as can be. She was her father’s little angel and was barely allowed to touch a boy without her dad freaking out and beating him up. Her dad was in jail after all. But it was good that Cosette was bisexual, a fact she never mentioned to her father for obvious reasons. So she could easily bring girls home instead. But now she was in college; now it was her time to explore and experience. So, of course, the first thing she did was go to a college party, get drunk, and having massively lousy sex.

So, the first day of college wasn’t great for any of the Valjean children. But maybe there was some fate tying it all together, making them suffer on this first day just to set them up for success in the coming months.

* * *

 

Ignoring Jean Sr., Enjolras was the oldest living of the Valjean clan. He was also the unluckiest. He was born into a strangely happy family. His father loved his mother. His mother loved his father. His father was a distinguished Professor, and his mother, well they didn’t talk about her anymore. Enjolras never got to meet his mother. She died too early. But his parents were happy until he was born. 

Jean Valjean Sr. was a kind and caring man once. That wasn’t the man his children knew. His children knew a gruff, stern, rich, spoiled old man. There are many different reasons that people have come up with for why this sudden change happened. The most logical and most widely accepted one was it happened because of Enjolras, or more importantly because his wife died. Enjolras was already the unluckiest Valjean child, well before the other two were even born. 

Jean remarried less than one year later to another professor at UW. Her name was Fantine, and she too had recently become single. Their courtship was quick, and their marriage was sudden, as was Cosette. Fantine was kind to Enjolras, despite not being his mother. Cosette was born seven months after Enjolras’ first birthday, quickly taking over the role of“family favorite.” She was her daddy’s little angel, and Enjolras was the devil in comparison.  Nonetheless, the two were glued at the hip for their entire childhood. Unfortunately for their “perfect” family situation, with Valjean finally happy again and the siblings becoming friends; a three-year-old was about to ruin it all. 

Enjolras was a four year, bright-eyed, all ready for preschool. Cosette was a three-year-old, attached to her brother, protective of her family, and dying to become a Disney princess. And then there was Jehan. Jean Sr. shared very little with his family about the ongoing custody battle that he was facing with Jehan, you see Jehan was born out an affair and born barely a month later than Cosette. Jehan’s mother could not take care of the baby, but instead of turning to the Valjeans, turned instead to her own family. Jean found out about this quickly and jumped into the court battle. Valjean won, and brought home a three-year-old Jehan, much to the dismay of Fantine, who divorced him very soon after. So all three children were alone with their father. 

And unfortunately for them, that’s where they would stay. 

Because of their father’s utter hatred of children and a regular job, the three siblings became best friends easily and quickly. Cosette’s romanticism mixed beautifully with Jehan’s artistic side. Enjolras had a fighting spirit that was mirrored in Jehan. And Cosette, like Enjolras, would murder you if you touched one of their siblings.

The first time that they were separated was when college when Enjolras first moved out into his room with Combeferre and Courfeyrac. Cosette and Jehan barely knew how to function, but they ended up at UW just like their brother, they got back on track.

They were the tightest siblings this side of the Mississippi. They never fought once. But this was college. College was always different.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> check me out on tumblr @foresttofarden


	2. The Thenardiers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mentions: drinking, sex (nothing graphic), abuse (casual mention), homophobia (no slurs)

The Thenardier siblings couldn’t have been more different. They did not grow up with money in their college fund, or babysitters were watching their every move. They grew up alone. When Grantaire was still living at home, they were ok. Not good, not great, just ok. They spoke on occasion; they fought maybe once or twice a month (which was technically really good by Thenardier standards). For 13 years, there was peace. Some sort of calm before the storm, and to be honest, everyone knew it. Everyone had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn’t what normal was, that there was something that would explode. So everyone walked on eggshells for 13 years.

The reason shit hit the fan was to be expected. Everyone could have guessed. Everyone knew. Grantaire even knew. But to ruin the peace, the scary dark and mysterious peace that resided in the Thenardier household, well, that was just a horrible move. And everyone knew it. For a family who always fought and consistently hated each other, the Thenardiers were surprisingly intuitive.

Grantaire was bisexual. And that is all you need to know about why he moved out of his parent's house when he was 13 years old. He wasn’t alone, at least not quite yet. How was a 13-year-old boy supposed to fend for himself? So he couch-surfed with two of his best friends, Joly and Bossuet until he was able to get his own job. He finally moved out on his own at 16, when a not so strange almost stranger came knocking on his door.

Eponine, in her turn, had left her parent’s house at the age of 15, after being fed up with their constant insulting of her older brother and constant mistreatment and neglect of her younger brother. So she got up and left. And she brought Gavroche with her. She was struggling to when a place to go when a familiar name popped up in the school newspaper, her brother, Grantaire. So, on this, his 16th birthday, she knocked at his door, hoping for a place to stay.

And that is the story of how all the Thenardier siblings ended up crammed into one tiny one bedroom, with Grantaire on a crazy art scholarship and each of them works at least two jobs to pay for rent, hopefully. That is all you need to know.

* * *

 

On the night of the eve of his return to school, Grantaire received a strange text while did his favorite Sunday night activity, drinking alone while watching bad hallmark romances. Grantaire had few friends other than his siblings and aforementioned best friends through high school and now college, but he was accidentally part of a student revolutionary group headed by a strangely hot and charismatic and sometimes sweet but usually awful man, who, to no one's surprise, Grantaire had fallen in love with. And to be honest, everyone knew. Probably even the dashing leader himself. So, of course, not wanting an alcoholic like R, which is what his friends called him, this mythically beautiful man instead decided to date one of his best friends. So like the petty person he was, he decided to date one of his best friends, Montparnasse. That lasted maybe a week. And he was back to pining. Which brings back to now, when he drinks alone on his couch while almost crying about a businesswoman and her sister, and gets a text from Joly with a shocked face, a crying face, and the works “ _guess who just broke up!!!!_ ”. Grantaire couldn’t guess. “ _Enjolras and Comberferre IM SHOOK.”_ So Grantaire started the school year suddenly and inexplicably thrust into another love triangle.

Eponine, on the other hand, wasn’t going to pity anybody, especially herself, so instead of moping around, she got laid. By the literal last person, she wanted to get laid by. Yes, that’s right, she got her crush’s crush drunk, then had the absolute worst sex ever with her. Who knew that what’s her fart that Marius was in love with (but had never had a conversation with, what a dork) was into girls? Honestly who knew anything about what’s her face at all? Yeah, Eponine was in for some weird conversations when the school year started. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! I'm sorry this actually took a million years whOOPS. But hey I combined the first two chapters into one, and I made this one a little more detailed when it came to Grantaire's story. I'm sorry I"m so inconsistent with writing styles this is gonna be a party.
> 
> In other new the Hallmark movie is actually gonna be a recurring plot point, so watch out for similarities between the Les Mis characters and the characters in the movie. I got most of the plot from the random generator on this website: https://www.theodysseyonline.com/create-your-own-hallmark-christmas-movie.


End file.
